Improvement in cotton-gins



E. KEITH.

Cotton Ghi.

Patented Jan. 27. 1857.

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N. PEYERs. PMlo-Ulhngnpher. Wishinglnn. D C.

UNiTED STATES PATENT ()FFIGE.

EDWVIN KEITH, OF BRIDGEIVATER, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN COTTON-GINS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWIN KEITH, of Bridgewater, Plymouth county, Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ootton-Gins; and I do hereby declare that the following description, with the accompanying drawings, forms afull, clear, and exact specification thereof, and fully sufficient to enable others skilled in the art to make and use my improvements.

The drawings represent a cotton-gin in which all the various improvements are embodied for which it is my purpose to solicit a patent in this application.

In the model and drawings all the essential parts of the gin are represented except the saw-cylinder and some minor parts, which not differing in my gin from those in common use, and being well understood, a particular representation of them was deemed unnecessary.

Similar letters represent similar parts in all the views.

Figure l is a front view of the gin with the seed-board removed. Fig. 2 is a transverse section on line A B. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on line C D.

The main essential parts of the gin are represented by the capital letters of the alphabet as follows, viz: A A, the frame work of the gin; B B, the'grate-fall heads or ends of breast; G O, the grates; D, the sliding mote-board; E,

the discharging-flue; F, the seed-board.

The minor and more minute parts will be represented by the small letters of the alphabet as I have occasion to refer to them in the course of the following description of my improvements.

My. first improvement is in the rib or grate, and is more particularly applicable to the detached or forked rib or grate for which a patent was granted to Asa Copeland April 8, 1840, and to the forked ribs originally made by Eli WVhitney about the year 1805, but may be applied to other forms. The detached or forked grate above referred to extends up above and in front of the lower edge of the wooden back of the breast, and is three inches (more or less) in length above the point where the saw-teeth pass the grate, is detached from the wood, standing out in front of it, while the main body of the grate is secured to the wood of the breast by a branch or fork passing from the rear side. WVhen these grates are set in the hopper of the gin, the spaces between them, through which the saws revolve, continue without obstruction to their upper ends, and are perpendicular to the axis of the saw-cylinder throughout their entire length. \Vhen the cotton-gin is in operation, the teeth of the saws are continually catching and drawing out the fibers from the roll of unginned cotton in the hopper, and at that point of the grates where they pass out of the hopper there are formed a series of ridges of partiallydrawn fibers 011 the back of the roll, extending through the spaces between the grates. The number of these so-formed ridges is of course equal to the number of saws in the gin. When the common form of grate is used, the ridges upon the roll of nnginned cotton, above referred to, meet the shoulder of the grate or the surface of the breast near the sawteeth, and are thus flattened as soon as formed, and nearly disappear, and the saw-teeth enter the .-roll at its next revolution (if no endwise motion is given to it byfeeding at the end or otherwise) in the same place.

- The object of my improved grate is to make use of the ridge of projecting fibers upon the roll of unginned cotton above described, to give an endwise motion to the roll for the purpose of delivering the bolls, hulls, 820., at the end of the hopper; also, to separate the longer fibers and more valuable portion of the cotton, when desired, and to vary the line ,on which the saws enter the roll, that the teeth may catch more of the fibers, and thus increase the quantity ginned. In practice I find that the greater part of these bolls, hulls, &c., may be discharged through a hole, m, in the breast-head, and thence by a spout or trough, it, onto the fioor.

I make my improved grate 0 similar in form to the detached grate first described. I also incline the top or detached part, a, either to the right or left from the perpendicular,so that when the gin is in operation the pressure of the ridges projecting from the roll of the seedcotton against the inclined side of the grates will give the endwise motion required. I do not find it necessary to incline all the grates. Several of those next the discharging end of the hopper may be perpendicular, in the usual manner.

The'front view of the grates in Fig. 1 clearly exhibits the peculiar and improved form of which I make them.

My second improvement is in the construction of the brush-cylinder heads. The object of this improvement is to enable the brush of the cotton-gin to produce a stronger and more even current of air throughout its entirelength, and at the same time to prevent the accumulationof cotton at the ends of the brush and about its axis; also, to facilitate the separation of motes and dirt from the cotton, and to lessen the power required to propel the brush. I make the brush-head of two circular plates, having a space of an inch (more or less) between them. The inner circular plate, I), is firmly secured by arms or spokes to the axis of the brush,and at a distance of several inches from the center is turned outward by a kind of flange as far as or a little beyond the side casing of the gin, so as to allow a free passage for and induce a current of external air into the center of the brush, in the direction of the ed arrows 0 c, to prevent the accumulation of cotton about the axis, and to augment the requisite centrifugal action of the brush, while the outer circular plate, d, which I 0011- struct of very thin metal, is secured to the ends of the brush-lags, (or, it may be, by small connections to the inner plate.) The outer plate, (I, has also a flange projecting outward, as shown in Fig. 3, so as to afford a passage for and induce a current of air between the two plates represented by the red arrows e c,

discharging itself within the brush-chamber close beside the side casing of the gin, in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the brush, and thus prevent any accumulation of cotton at the ends of the brush. The brush-heads may either project through the casing of the gin-frame at the side or turn wholly within it, provided always that sufficient openings are left through the casing for the admission of.

the currents of air above described. In all cases I extend the brush lags and bristles nearly or quite to the side of the gin-casing, and thus the final escape of a the outer current of air, 0, is principally or entirely confined to the spaces between the lags.

I sometimes find it convenient to apply my improvedheads to solid brush-cylinders,which of course will not admit of the inner current of air above described, but still leaves all the advantages to be experienced from the outer current, 6 6.

My third improvement consists in fixing the hair or bristles which brush the cotton from the saw-teeth at certain angles with the radius of the brush-cylinder, for the purpose of more effectually separating the fibers of the cotton as it is brushed from the saw-teeth, and also to affect favorably the direction of the air as it flies off from the periphery of the brush, so that the operation of moting may be more perfectly and readily performed. I set the hair or bristles in double rows upon the outer periphery of the brush-cylinder, one of these rows pitching forward in advance of the radius about nine degrees, and the other receding or falling back from the said radius about the same number of degrees. The effect of this mode of setting the bristles is to separate the fibers of cotton and release the dust and motes above stated.

The sectional view of the brush in Fig. 2 clearly exhibits my mode of setting the rows of-bristles in the brush.

My fourth improvement is in the mode of confining the lags or wings of cottongin brushes, so as to prevent their bursting or flying to pieces either from centrifugal force or from pressure of air within. This has been found a difficulty of no inconsiderable magnitude, and various expedients have been resorted to to remedy it, such as binding in the lags by clasps of wire, and many other expedients. To accomplish this, however, I make the heads of the brush-cylinder (usually of metal) with a series of small lips or flanges, 0 0, around their periphery, so placed as to project over the edges of the lags when in their places. I then fasten them securely with woodscrews 19 p, &c., inserted at a convenient angle to be easily driven after the lags are in their places. To guard thoroughly against the centrifugal force, I generally make one series of these lips or flanges q q on the outer circular plate of my improved brush-heads, and turn them over onto the outside of the lags between the two rows of bristles. The enlarged detail view, Fig. 4, more clearly illustrates this point.

My fifth improvement is in the mote-board,

and consists in introducing a small current of air, from some source not immediately affected by the action of the rotating brush, into the flue of the cotton-gin and below the brush through holes or openings in the mote-board or bottom of the flue, for the purpose of preventing a too rapid current of air over the front edge of the mote-board, and thus facilitate the dropping the motes or dirt, while at the same time the main current of air through the gin is over the face or edge of the moteboard in the usual manner. 111 the drawings the main current is represented by the red arrow f f, and thesmall current by the red arrows g g. I make the openings or slits h through the mote-board or bottom of the flue extend from end to end, which openings communicate with a box or conductor beneath. This box or conductor may extend out in front of the gin-stand and beneath the ginner, and thus have its mouth near the floor of the room at some distance from the stand; or it 'mayreceive the air through the floor immediately under the mote-board or from any other direction.

In order to regulate and control the small current of air mentioned above, I apply a door or slide in some convenient place, so that the quantity of air admitted may be increased or Y diminished at the pleasure of the ginner. The particular method adopted in the model and delineated in the drawings is by means of the swinging door 6, which, being elevated more or less, as shown by the dotted lines serves to-contract the opening, and consequently diminish the force of the current, all of which shows plainly in Fig. 2.

My sixth improvement consists in fitting the sliding mote-board D with the adjusting screwrods k is extending outward to the front of the gin near the ginner, and terminating with the milled thumb-heads shown on the drawings. The mote-board has usually been adjusted by reaching, or rather creeping, under the front part of the gin and there setting it in any desired positionau operation extremely awkward and inconvenient, whereas by these rods the mote-board can be minutely adjusted and firmly retained in any desired position as often as desired, and almost without stooping, much to the convenience of the ginner.

The operation and use of my adjusting screw- .rods clearly appear by the drawings.

I claim 1. Inclining the upper part of the grates, for the purpose of giving an endwise motion to the roll of unginned cotton inthe hopper, substantially as described.

2. The construction of a brush-cylinder with a chamber or aperture in the end or head of the same, into which a current of air is drawn through an opening in the side of the gin at p a little distance from the axis, and, being deflected by the form and direction of the aperture or chamber, as shown by the dotted arrows 6 e, is finally discharged at the periphery of the brush near thesides of the gin, thereby preventing any accumulation of cotton at the ends of the brush; also, the peculiar construe tion of the brush-cylinder head, whereby two separate currents of external air are received at the end of the open brush, one of which currents, c 0, being received'near the center in a direction parallel with the axis, is allowed to diffuse itself throughout the interior of the ,brush, and thus augment its general centrifugal action, while the other current, e 0, being diverted and finally discharged through openings more or less contracted near the ends of the brush and at right angles with the axis, tends to prevent all accumulation of cotton at the ends of the brush, the entire brush-cylinder head being constructed substantially as set forth and described.

8. The setting the rows of bristles in the brush alternately at different angles with the radii of the brush, for the purpose and substantially in the manner herein described.

4. The improved method of confining the lags or wings into the heads of the cotton-gin brush by means of lips or flanges projecting from the brush-head, substantially as described. I

5. The introduction of a slight current of air into the flue of the gin through one or' more openings in the mote-board or bottom of the flue, for the purpose of facilitating the dropping of the motes or dirt in front of or through the mote-board, substantially as described.

6. The adjustable screw-rods-k 7c, in combination with the sliding mote-board -D, and extending outward to the front of the gin near the ginner, substantially as set forth and described.

EDWIN KEITH. Witnesses:

LAFAYETTE KEITH,

LLOYD PARSONS. 

